Uconn

Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma directs his team in the first half against Notre Dame at a women's NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament semifinal, Sunday, April 7, 2013, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

NEW ORLEANS — UConn coach Geno Auriemma said that he still fondly remembers his first trip to New Orleans as a coach because it was the Huskies' first Final Four.

"Yes, because you are on Cloud Nine," Auriemma said. "You are here at the Final Four for a program that had not had a winning season ever five years earlier and now you are in the Final Four. And then we show up and it is Tennessee, Stanford, Virginia and us. It didn't fit. It didn't make any sense. We had one great, great player. Unfortunately, the officiating back then wasn't as stellar as it is today. She got two quick fouls and sat out about 15 minutes of the first half. We are down 10."

The Huskies rallied back in that game, but former UConn assistant coach Tanya Cardoza, then a player for Virginia, hit four foul shots in the final minute of play to send UConn home a loser in that first national semifinal experience.

"So you go away from that kind of experience saying, 'You know what, next time we go down there, if we are lucky enough to go back there, there are a couple of things we will do differently.' When we got back there in 1995, it was a little different team than the Connecticut team we had in 1991. But I will never forget that '91 team."

That '91 team was both a first and a last for Auriemma.

"That might be the last time I ever cried in the locker room was in 1991 when we won in the regional," he said. "Because that is something, that… do you know how many coaches have coached and never taken any team to the Final Four?"

UConn advanced to the Final Four for the 14th time in program history this year.

Look to the future: UConn's lone recruit for next season, Saniya Chong, got to watch the Huskies play at the Final Four on Sunday after playing at the New Orleans Arena herself Saturday afternoon in the WBCA All-America game.

Chong, a 5-9 guard from Ossining, N.Y., scored nine points in the All-America game on 3-for-4 shooting from the field. She also added six rebounds, four assists and a steal in a solid 21-minute performance. She admitted she wasn't trying to impose her scoring will on the game with so many talented players all around her.

She is a prolific scorer who tallied 2,988 points, which ranked fourth all-time in state history. Her senior season, she led Ossining High (22-5) to the first state Class AA state championship in school history. She averaged 34.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 9.1 assists and 4.8 steals.

"I would say I have accomplished everything that I would've imagined," Chong said. "I accomplished so many things just by myself and then so many accomplishments from me and my team, and especially that one goal of the state championship. We got it and that's what we wished for."

Chong said that after playing softball, track and nothing her last three spring seasons of high school and not really liking any of them, she is going to play lacrosse this spring to keep in shape for basketball. She plans to arrive at UConn on June 22.

"I am looking into the future right now," Chong said. "This is our last game for now and there goes college season starting up already. So I think I'm very excited for college to start. I'm just a little nervous. Since I am the only freshman it's going to be a little harder and more difficult for me to get around and get a hang of things. But I think I got it."

She said that while she was a great scorer in high school, she is ready to embrace any role the Huskies have for her next season.

"I think anywhere I would perfectly it," Chong said. "I think that if I just play as hard as I do each and every game I think I should be fine. I think I would bring (an) all-around (game), defense, shooter, point guard. I would hope to bring everything that they would all look for. Maybe pushing the ball down, maybe shooting a shot when I'm open or just taking control sometimes. I think that hopefully I can fit it in."

Future series: Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw has consistently said that she loves to play UConn and would like to continue to play them in the regular season even after the Irish move to the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

Auriemma has hedged when asked in the past. Even though he respects McGraw and the Irish, he's spoken out in the past about Notre Dame's role in breaking up the Big East.

At the Final Four, Auriemma finally relented. He said it has been his philosophy to play as many Top 10 teams as possible, so if the opportunity presents itself in the next couple years to resume a series with Notre Dame, he will.

"Once we get this conference thing squared away and once we get our scheduling in order, I would venture to say that there's going to be a lot of interest in playing that game," Auriemma said. "I'm sure on our part and their part."

No thank you: Skylar Diggins was asked Saturday if she was given the opportunity to take any one of UConn's players onto the Notre Dame team who she would want. Her answer: No one. There were five seconds of silence as reporters waited for her to expand on her answer, but she just waited for the next question.

When told that, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was taken back initially.

"Whoa… I mean that is her opinion," Mosqueda-Lewis said. Then when UConn's sophomore as asked if she would pick one of the Irish to be on her team she simply responded, "Nope. So there you have it. It's mutual."

Auriemma added his two cents worth about Diggins' answer.

"I don't blame her," he said. "They don't need anybody," Auriemma said. "They've got the coach of the year. They've got the freshman of the year. They've got one of the best guards in college. They don't need anybody. Certainly nobody from our team. I don't blame them."

America's team: Diggins said she feels like no one has really embraced Notre Dame as a team, even after the Irish had beaten UConn seven of eight games including four in a row.

"I still feel like Connecticut is America's team," Diggins said, "and they're going to cheer for them whether we beat them 20 times in a row."

A different 31: When Stefanie Dolson and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis earned first team All-America status it meant their numbers will eventually be hung in the Huskies of Honor section of Gampel Pavilion. Dolson said it will be strange to have her number hanging alongside that of the No. 31 of former UConn center Tina Charles.

"Anytime your number is put up somewhere it is meaningful," Dolson said. "The fact that it is the same as Tina (Charles') is kind of weird, because we are two completely different players. We both wear 31, but she is a completely different center than I am. We are both good at different things and bad at different things. I definitely look up to her, though, as someone who came to Connecticut and worked hard to get to where she is."

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